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President Obama and VA Claims

With great fanfare, President Obama “told a crowd of disabled veterans on Saturday that his administration has made headway with efforts to battle a longstanding backlog of disability claims.”

As reported in the Washingon Post, “’Today, I can report that we are not where we need to be, but we’re making progress,’” Obama said during a speech at a Disabled American Veterans’ convention in Orlando. “’In the last five months alone, it’s down nearly 20 percent.  We’re turning the ...

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SFTT and PTS

For several months SFTT, its medical task force and its Board have been thoroughly analyzing the battlefield of brave warriors suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and examining the resources and procedures currently available to treat this crippling disability. We have purposely dropped the “D” from PTSD since most scientific research indicates that PTS is far more serious than simply a “disorder”.

There are countless stories of brave young men and women suffering from PTS, some ...

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The Battle of Dai Do, Republic of Viet Nam (May 1968)

In his reflections on this battle along the north bank of the Cua Viet River when one Marine infantry battalion (2d Battalion, 4th Marines) went nose-to-nose with a North Vietnamese Army division, a Marine wrote today (May 3, 2013):

AN ENDURING RECOLLECTION WAS A SCENE AT THE MOST DISTANT POINT OF MARINE ADVANCE. AMONG THE NVA BODIES THERE LAY A SHORT LINE OF DEAD MARINES, LIKELY OF FOX COMPANY. ONE MARINE WAS SPRAWLED HEAD FIRST ACROSS ...

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Dr. Yuval Nuria on the Boston Marathon Massacre

Many Americans are both deeply saddened and outraged over the horrific carnage at the Boston Marathon massacre. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to rush to judgement based on very limited and conflicting information on who the perpetrator(s) is and their motivation. In some respects, this “rush to judgement” is fueled by poorly researched media reporting, but judging from the Tweets received by Josh Zepps of Huffington Post, reactions to tragic events are often shaped by ideology or ...

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PTSD Treatments

As the VA struggles to deal with the overwhelming number of cases of Veterans suffering from PTS, new approaches are beginning to manifest themselves.  From Equine therapy to Transcendental Meditation, no approach is being dismissed lightly given the clear evidence that prescription drugs have not proven to be successful in providing a long term cure.

SFTT is thrilled to count on the assistance of Yuval Neria (see below) is a Special Advisor to SFTT’s Medical Task Force.    We ...

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Veteran Treatment Courts and PTSD

It is pleasing to see that CBS decided to feature one of the 120 or so Veteran Treatment Courts in the United States on one of its most popular investigative programs: 60 Minutes. Found below is a brief summary of this very moving and disturbing report:

Two and a half million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of them, more than once. The VA tells us about 20 percent come home with post-traumatic stress disorder, known as ...

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Gun Control Legislation and Military Suicides

The terrible tragedy in Newtown has spurred much debate about gun control legislation in the United States.   With gun-related deaths in the United States 20 times more than the average of other countries in the developed world, it is clearly a horrific problem for our nation.  What is less-well publicized is that two-thirds of the reported 32,000 gun deaths in the United States are suicides.    This has led some to suggest that any new ...

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PTS is much better than PTSD

As psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Shay says below “I really don’t like the term ‘PTSD.”   SFTT doesn’t like the term either and internally we prefer “PTS” or Post Traumatic Stress.  Clearly, there is a stigma attached to the term “disorder” but it also suggests – erroneously – that this debilitating problem of great personal and social significance is simply a “disorder” that can be medicated or treated and that the individual afflicted with PTS will soon

lead a normal and healthy life.

VA ...

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Are drugs the right solution to treat PTSD?

It’s hard to know what what works best when dealing with military Vets with symptoms of PTSD or TBI. For certain, we have learned that there is no “silver bullet” solution and that drugs tend to address symptoms rather than provide any “real” long term improvement, let alone cure. In fact, anecdotal evidence and SFTT’s research suggests that most current “treatment” programs often over prescribe drugs and this will often lead to drug dependency with explosive consequences.

Earlier, SFTT reported that ...

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PTSD and Military Suicides

Talking about the suicide  of a loved one is not easy.  There is always a sense of guilt that “I could have done more,” but this is generally not the case for military veterans suffering from PTSD or as SFTT prefers to call it:  PTS  (“Post Traumatic Stress”).  Let’s remove the “disorder” stigma for what is now the signature wound of  many warriors who have served our country so valiantly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

SFTT will continue to provide a ...

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